Waiting times for surgery

Elective surgery waiting times: by specialty of surgeon

Elective surgery is planned surgery that can be booked in advance as a result of a specialist clinical assessment resulting in placement on an elective surgery waiting list. This section shows data on waiting times for elective surgery at this hospital. This is the number of days within which half of the patients (50%) were admitted for their elective surgery, from their date of placement on the waiting list. Data are presented by the area of clinical expertise held by the doctor performing the elective surgery (specialty of surgeon).

It was not possible to calculate comparable surgical specialty peer group data for 2016–17 or 2017–18.

General surgery focuses on the organs of the abdomen (such as the stomach, intestines, gall bladder, liver and pancreas), and includes hernia repair and haemorrhoid removal. General surgeons may also treat diseases of the skin and breast.

This section shows the median waiting time for elective surgery performed by general surgeons, and the percentage of patients who waited longer than 365 days, at this hospital.

Surgery by general surgeons: median waiting times

In 2017–18, the median waiting time for elective surgery performed by general surgeons was 29 days at this hospital.

Orthopaedic surgery focuses on bones and muscles (the musculoskeletal system). It includes the repair of broken bones and injuries to ligaments and tendons, investigation and repair of damaged joints, and treatment of conditions such as bone and soft tissue tumours, cerebral palsy, back pain and skeletal deformities.

This section shows the median waiting time for elective surgery performed by orthopaedic surgeons, and the percentage of patients who waited longer than 365 days, at this hospital.

Surgery by orthopaedic surgeons: median waiting times

In 2017–18, the median waiting time for elective surgery performed by orthopaedic surgeons was 52 days at this hospital.

This section shows the median waiting time for elective surgery performed by surgeons of specialties not covered in other sections, and the percentage of patients who waited longer than 365 days, at this hospital.

Surgery by other types of surgeon: median waiting times

In 2017–18, the median waiting time for elective surgery performed by all other types of surgeon was 22 days at this hospital.

For each specialty of surgeon and intended procedure

Median waiting time

Data source

About the measure

This measure provides median waiting times. Data are presented by the area of clinical expertise held by the doctor performing the elective surgery (specialty of surgeon) and the procedure for which a patient has been placed on the elective surgery waiting list (intended procedure).

Elective surgery is planned surgery that can be booked in advance as a result of a specialist clinical assessment resulting in placement on an elective surgery waiting list. Once patients are assessed by a medical specialist and assigned an urgency category based on medical need, their surgery is booked and the details entered into the elective surgery waiting list (the waiting list).

The cohort for this measure includes all patients on the waiting list who were admitted for an awaited procedure, or admitted as an emergency patient for an awaited procedure during the relevant financial year.

Calculating the measure

‘Number of surgeries’ refers to the number of elective and emergency admissions from public hospital elective surgery waiting lists, by specialty of surgeon and intended procedure.

The median waiting time is the number of days within which half of the patients (50%) were admitted from the waiting list for the awaited procedure. The calculation of waiting times excludes: any days the patient was waiting with a less urgent elective surgery category than their urgency category at removal, and people who were transferred to another hospital’s elective surgery waiting list, were treated elsewhere but not on behalf of the hospital, were not contactable, died prior to receiving their surgery, or declined surgery.

Data are presented for the period in which the patient was admitted.

Only surgery data which met certain criteria are included in the calculation. The criteria for calculating and presenting results are:

Detailed specifications

Data are prepared according to the National Healthcare Agreement (NHA) indicator PI 20a–Waiting times for elective surgery: waiting times in days. Data are reported on this website for the Performance and Accountability Framework (PAF) indicator Elective surgery patient waiting times by urgency category. The PAF indicator has the same definition as the NHA indicator, and is reported at hospital level and peer group level. Peer group, state and national-level data are available in Elective surgery waiting times 2017–18: Australian hospital statistics (AIHW, 2018).

The percentage of patients who waited longer than 365 days

Data source

About the measure

This measure identifies the percentage of patients who waited longer than 365 days for their surgery by specialty of surgeon and intended procedure.

The cohort for this measure includes all patients on the waiting list who were admitted for an awaited procedure, or admitted as an emergency patient for an awaited procedure during the relevant financial year.

Calculating the measure

‘Number of surgeries’ refers to the total number of elective and emergency admissions from public hospital elective surgery waiting lists, by specialty of surgeon and intended procedure.

The percentage of patients who waited longer than 365 days for their surgery is calculated as the number of patients who were on the waiting list longer than 365 days before being admitted for their awaited procedure, divided by the total number of patients admitted for their awaited procedure in the category.

The calculation of waiting times excludes: any days the patient was waiting with a less urgent elective surgery category than their urgency category at removal, and people who were transferred to another hospital’s elective surgery waiting list, were treated elsewhere but not on behalf of the hospital, were not contactable, died prior to receiving their surgery, or declined surgery.

Data are presented for the period in which the patient was admitted.

Only surgery data which met certain criteria are included in the calculation. The criteria for calculating and presenting results are:

In 2016–17 the list of 15 ‘Indicator procedures’ was replaced by a more extensive list of 152 ‘Intended procedures’. From 2016–17, data are presented on the MyHospitals website for the original 15 procedures and the next 10 most common procedures reported for all hospitals, except Children’s hospitals, combined. For Children’s hospitals, the next 10 most common for those hospitals are presented. Data for all intended procedures are available in the Excel download. From 2016–17, Myringotomy was reported as 2 separate Intended procedures: Myringotomy and Pressure equalising tubes (grommets) - insertion of. Data for both procedures were combined and reported here as Myringotomy. Any comparisons over time should take into account the change from ‘Indicator procedure’ to ‘Intended procedure’.

The surgical specialty Paediatric surgery was implemented from 1 July 2016, and was therefore not reported as a surgical specialty before the 2016–17 reporting period. Therefore, the data from 2016–17 are not comparable with data presented for earlier years. In addition, there was variation among jurisdictions in the use of the Paediatric surgery category. In 2016–17 New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory did not use the Paediatric surgery category, and in 2017–18 Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory did not use the Paediatric surgery category. As a result, it was not possible to calculate comparable peer group data for 2016–17 or 2017–18 data by surgical specialty.